As there was still time until the geyser eruption, Tang Jie continued his clean-up work in an orderly manner.
One day, as his ghost ship was forging ahead, a light appeared on the river.
Tang Jie’s eyes brightened, as this was a sign that a treasure had appeared in the river.
After so many days, a treasure had finally appeared, so Tang Jie hastily ordered his ship to head in its direction.
As they approached the treasure light, they found that it was coming from the bottom of the river. Tang Jie waved his hand, and several ghosts he had recently recruited from the river jumped in. A few moments later, they emerged from the river holding a cup made of jade-coloured glass. It had not shattered in the river and was still sparkling.
“It’s a treasure from the mortal plane,” Tang Jie remarked.
The Nether Domain did not produce this kind of treasure, so he judged this jade cup to have come down from the mortal plane.
Tang Jie grabbed it, but just when he was about to take a closer look, another ghost ship appeared.
Unlike the Ghost March Ship, this ghost ship was made entirely from Ghostperch Wood, a rare kind of Nether Domain tree that could be used to raise ghosts, which made it a treasure in the mortal plane as well as in the Nether Domain. A massive quantity was needed to make an entire ship, so this ship was many times more valuable than a Ghost March Ship.
Tang Jie immediately ordered his ship to retreat, showing his unwillingness to be an enemy.
When facing powerful enemies, Tang Jie preferred to avoid battle.
But that ghost ship had also spotted Tang Jie’s ship, and it came straight for him.
Slicing through the waves!
Tang Jie knew that this ship was looking for trouble and that combat was unavoidable, so he ordered, “Prepare for battle!”
The ghost soldiers took up their posts and began to howl while calling up chilling winds.
The other ghost ship charged over, completely unaffected. Numerous ghosts floated on its deck, which on closer inspection turned out to all be Bluefang Ghosts.
These were ghosts that sported red eyes, white claws, blue fangs that protruded from their mouths, and bodies that rivaled armored corpses in toughness. These were clearly the apex of ghost soldiers.
It was undoubtedly thanks to the Ghostperch Wood that these ghost soldiers could be so powerful.
Another ghost sat upon the deck, wearing a crown of violet gold and holding a banner of souls. He had a face as white as paper and exuded a thick death energy. One could tell at a glance that this was a profoundly powerful Ghost King, much stronger than the three ordinary Ghost Kings at Tang Jie’s side. Its cultivation was equivalent to the Soul Transformation Tier, but only the most basic level of Soul Transformation. Even so, this was not a power that could be underestimated.
The white-faced Ghost King glanced at Tang Jie and smiled. “Hand over the treasure and you can leave.”
Tang Jie smirked. “You seem like a rich ghost. I want your hat, your boat, and your weapon.”
The Whiteface Ghost King scowled. “Impudent!”
He waved his soul banner, which unleashed a screeching black storm at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie remained motionless while his ghost soldiers joined together in unleashing a blast of wind.
One strike from these ghosts wasn’t enough to contend against the soul banner, and there was a shrieking from the Ghost March Ship as some of the weaker ghosts were obliterated on the spot.
But this bought enough time for the three Ghost Kings behind Tang Jie—a five-hundred-year-old armored corpse, a Preta, and the ghost eagle—to attack in unison.
A five-hundred-year-old armored corpse was extremely strong and tough, and after five hundred years of cultivation, it also had the ability to fly, so it charged straight at the Whiteface Ghost King.
The ghost eagle flapped its steely wings, unleashing a hurricane at Whiteface. He was the strongest of the three ghost kings, comparable to the Whiteface Ghost King, though Whiteface also had two art relics. However, three Ghost Kings was enough to threaten him.
The Whiteface Ghost King angrily roared, “You dare!”
The violet gold crown radiated a light that formed a barrier around him. At the same time, the Whiteface thrust a palm at the ghost eagle. Rather than dodging, the ghost eagle decided to strike back, and while his attack had the barrier rippling from the shockwave, he was sent flying with a scream, clearly badly injured.
The five-hundred-year-old armored corpse also charged into the fray, unleashing a punch at the barrier, setting off another series of ripples. Despite being a tier below the ghost eagle, the armored corpse’s blows were actually on par.
The Whiteface Ghost King meanwhile thrust out a finger in response, but the armored corpse was even fiercer than the ghost eagle, ignoring the Ghost King’s attacks and punching away at the barrier. In a flash, it had thrown ten-some punches, causing the violet gold barrier to erupt in light as it was pushed to the breaking point.
The Whiteface Ghost King thrust out a palm, sending the armored corpse flying away.
But just as he pushed back the armored corpse, Tang Jie twisted the armrest of his throne.
With a clack, the bone throne began to spit out ghost caltrops.
Tang Jie had personally installed this mechanism in the throne. For a formation master, this sort of mechanism was a trivial affair. As for these ghost caltrops, he had taken them from one of the ships he had looted.These ghost caltrops were particularly vicious and were very hard to defend against when paired with Tang Jie’s trap.
Each of these ghost caltrops aimed at the Whiteface Ghost King had a shrieking ghost head on it.
The Whiteface Ghost King was just about to dodge when the Preta began to inhale.
This was a powerful suction that was enough to suck weak ghosts right into its belly, and even strong ghosts would need to muster their strength to resist its pull.
The Whiteface Ghost King found himself unable to evade, so he whistled and blew out a gale.
But the ghost heads on the caltrops all giggled and then flew around the blast of wind, accelerating as they approached Whiteface.
All of this took place in a split second, and a moment later, the Whiteface Ghost King had several dozen caltrops sticking out of his body.
The ghost heads opened their mouths and began to devour Whiteface.
“Awooo!” the Whiteface Ghost King howled in pain. “Away with you!”
A black energy erupted from his body, blasting away all the ghost caltrops.
Still, each of those ghost heads carried away a chunk of his flesh. Jibbering and jabbering, they arced away into the river.
As the ghost caltrops vanished into the river, Tang Jie slapped the throne’s other armrest, which summoned a cloud of sand.
The Whiteface King knew better this time, and rather than let the yellow sand get close, he grabbed a Bluefang Ghost and threw it.
The yellow sand struck the Bluefang Ghost, but nothing happened.
As Whiteface was wondering what was going on, a screech broke him from his momentary stupor, and he saw the ghost eagle and armored corpse attacking again. Unable to dodge, he ended up being struck by a wing. While it wasn’t a fatal wound, it left him furious.
…Especially after Tang Jie casually remarked, “It was just ordinary sand.”
The Whiteface Ghost King charged at Tang Jie, wanting to kill this cunning Yaksha who dared to make a fool of him.
Tang Jie slapped the armrest again, blasting out another cloud of sand.
Whiteface ignored it this time, but as the sand fell on his body, there was a hiss as if he had been simultaneously stabbed with several hundred branding irons. White smoke rose up from his body as he screamed in pain.
“Corroding Golden Sand!” he roared as he blasted off the sand with a shockwave. His body had already been turned into a sieve by the sand, his energy unable to stop its incursion. Only his violet gold barrier could have stopped it, but it had been destroyed by the ghost eagle and armored corpse, and he needed to wait a while to activate it again.
Enraged, he turned around and shouted, “Are you all dead? Hurry up and charge!”
Tang Jie smiled. “You finally realized you had subordinates.”
The Whiteface Ghost King had been too proud and thought that his cultivation was sufficient to sweep through his opponents, but he had ended up suffering under Tang Jie’s traps. Now that he had stowed away his pride, the Bluefang Ghosts charged into the fray, and joining them were the several dozen ghost generals and three Ghost Kings under his command.
As these ghosts charged, Tang Jie ordered his own ghost generals and ghost soldiers into battle.
As the armies clashed, the massive gap in strength became obvious.
The Bluefang Ghosts were clearly stronger than Tang Jie’s motley array, both in energy and body. When the first line of Bluefang Ghosts met Tang Jie’s own ghost soldiers, they moved in unison, their energies weaving together into an illusory mountain that crushed Tang Jie’s formation, obliterating his soldiers.
The Bluefang Ghosts continued forward. The first line’s power had been spent and it was blocked, but then the next line of Bluefang Ghosts ran them over… This repeated over and over, like mighty waves crashing down, each time wiping out a swath of Tang Jie’s soldiers.
The difference in ghost generals was also rather large.
The Whiteface Ghost King had three Ghost Kings and several dozen ghost generals, and all of them were the cream of the crop, clearly having gone through special training. Meanwhile, Tang Jie’s three Ghost Kings were dealing with Whiteface, while the rest were mediocre ghost generals. There was no possible way they could stop a charge led by three Ghost Kings, so they were instantly scattered.
The gap in strength was so apparent that Tang Jie was at a disadvantage from the first moment of battle.
All Tang Jie did was calmly slap his throne.
He slapped a small outcrop bulging from the right side of the throne, and there was a click.
The Whiteface Ghost King instinctively froze at the sound, already a little traumatized by Tang Jie’s traps.
But nothing happened.
Instead, the three Ghost Kings fighting him immediately retreated.
The Whiteface Ghost King instantly realized that something was wrong and didn’t give chase.
This saved him from disaster as another storm of ghost caltrops was unleashed from under the throne. Since Whiteface hadn’t given chase, all the caltrops missed.
Whiteface breathed a sigh of relief and then laughed. “You’re out of tricks!”
He thought that Tang Jie was out of cards to play, but then he found that Tang Jie had left his throne and was heading toward the back of the Ghost March Ship. At the same time, his three Ghost Kings were continuing to retreat and had already completely fled the battlefield.
Meanwhile, his ghost generals threw themselves at him while wave after wave of ghost caltrops flew out from beneath the throne, though they seemed to pose no threat whatsoever.
Whiteface suddenly had an ill foreboding.
As he looked at Tang Jie, he saw a crafty glint in his eyes and finally realized what was about to happen.
He shrieked, “Retreat!”
“Too late,” Tang Jie said. “Ghost March Ship… Blackwater Death!”
A light burst into the air.
A massive black wave of energy erupted from the Ghost March Ship, engulfing Whiteface and all his ghost generals and Bluefang Ghosts…